Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1437291
52 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E VERY FUNNY: Nygard at work. the audience something they 've never seen before. "Even if the comic principles being used may be familiar, the scene itself should be original. I think Ali G made an impact because no one had seen that style of comedy before, in England at least, where somebody is asking ridiculous questions to a real person, who is an expert and answer- ing seriously. So, it felt new and surprising. With 'Borat,' there hadn't been a film where real people were moving the plot along." When Mike Binder is writing, he said his goal is to have an audience reaction be: "Wow. I didn't expect that character to say that—and it's true." A double win. Surprise and truth. When I was editing Mike Binder's documentary-series "The Comedy Store," in one of the outtakes, comedian Whitney Cummings revealed her secret to understanding comedy: "Tell the truth." She asks herself, "What's the elephant in the living room? [When you were growing up,] what was the thing you weren't allowed to say? The taboo things, the things that were off-limits, the things that we all experience but keep in the shadows. That's where all the meat is." Steve Allen (the first host of "The To- night Show" in 1954) once said, "Tragedy plus time equals comedy." When somebody falls down, we laugh. The more it hurts, the funnier it gets. In "Veep," when Jonah hit his head on the ceiling, the louder and more solid I made the sound effect (in an homage to The Three Stooges), the funnier it got. I also removed a single frame to speed up each hit to make the bumps appear even more violent. Watching awkward or clumsy behavior, we laugh and think, "I'm glad that's not me." Julian Doyle, editor of the Monty Python movies, once lamented to me, "My wife laughs any time I get hurt. I don't know what she's got against me, but if I fall over, she finds that hysterical, me hurting myself." I said, "I hope she won't be at your funer- al cackling wildly." J u l i a n r e p l i e d , " S h e ' l l t h i n k i t 's very funny." All these funny folks identified many 'IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT CREATING SURPRISE OR SUDDENLY MOVING IN A DIRECTION AN AUDIENCE DOESN'T EXPECT.' P H O T O S : C O U R T E S Y R O G E R N Y G A R D